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boogieshoes
So, some time ago, I promised a list of the embroidery finishes I did for 2017, and some pictures to go with. Most of the following are fairly small/ or were started in prior years, and going forward, I'm trying to finish my WIP (works-in-progress) stash before starting new projects. Predictably, this means I started a peacock kit at some point last year, instead of finishing one of my other kits, heh.
So, here are the 9(!) pieces I finished:
1) Naughty/ Nice ornament for a friend. The two kits below are sold separately, and the 'Nice' side has been finished for-*ever*. I finished the 'Naughty' side, sewed them together with a piece of white felt in between, strung up one hanger-thingy of beads, and sent it to my friend. I especially wanted to get this done this year, because my friend was sent off to the Middle East (not sure if it was Iraq or Afghanistan, i'm a bad friend...) as a final attempt by the US Army to murderize him right before his 20 years were up. *sighs* There are reasons I have a love/ hate relationship with Uncle Sam, and it usually has NOTHING to do with who's on the Hill....
2) Felt Helmet - this is an original design... which I don't think I remembered to get anyone to take a picture of. (No, I don't own a camera, so lean on friends at work). I worked this up in April as a joke for the aforementioned friend. He and I share an interest in the Society for the Creative Anachronism. It is, as the name implies, made entirely of felt blanket stitched in different layers with a small bit of decorative stitching for a bit more definition. I based it on a heraldic helmet, so it's turned sideways, with a Roman Crest of feathery things atop it. The helmet fully encloses the head, and with a rotating eye-protection piece with eye-slits. Sorta like the one on the far right:
3) Rocky Mtn Santa - I started this at the end of 2016 and didn't quite get it done until the end of Jan 2017. It went up on my tree this year. I liked it too much. :)
4) Dimensions Petit Gold Mermaid. Finish from my WIP pile. I don't remember when I started it, but i finished it in Feb, but left it unframed. I don't know what I want to do with it.
5) The first half of the piece of felt embroidery I did for work, I completed this in May. It is framed and sitting on my desk.
6) The second half of the felt embroidery I did for work was completed in November. This was way later than it 'should' have been, because every new step I had to get up the courage for. This is an example of stumpwork. It didn't turn out quite as I envisioned, but it's close enough, and I had a great deal of fun doing it. Includes slips (the bits of felt coming off the ground cloth), picot stitches (the white and silver triangles at the bottom of the flame), whipped backstich on the lettering, boullion and drizzle stitch on the red flames, feather stitches on the orange flame, and detached picot stitch (look at the floppy-flamelet coming through the orange flame, and the thing coming through the 'o' on the left), and finally, cutwork in it's simplest form - cutting a piece of the black cloth out and backing with the main yellow body in the middle.
I should note that all the colors in the flames are accurate... in an accurate representation - blue and white are the hottest flame colors, and if you see no color at all between the flame and the material burning that's hotter still. And the warning implied is also very true - your flame on oxygen is more intense, burns material more completely, and burns things not usually burnable in a 21% Oxy atmosphere. So be careful, guys. And also, end the public service announcement...
and finally, the finished piece:
7) Blue Angel from Dimensions. From the WIP pile - I have half a thought this was started while I was in college. I stitched, way back when, a Rose Angel for my mother, who at the time had Blue-themed guest bedroom with rose accents, and an office/ den with the opposite scheme. I think I was going for a paired set. I put it down, and didn't recall why until I picked it back up again - that pearlescent stuff is a total PITA to work with. And I didn't have enough of it, so I ended up finishing it out with metallic silver from DMC. I'm ok with the end effect of this, but remind me never to work with the pearlescent stuff again! I gave this to my mother, but I haven't received a picture on how it turned out. Finished mid-July.
8) Mill Hill Fire House kit. Tried to do this for mother's dad some years ago, but I think it got put down in the move from apt to house. Finished end of July. I haven't framed this, because I'm not so sure Grandpa's going to be around much longer. I may just quietly keep it to remind me of the good times.
9) Mill Hill tree ornament. Finally decided it was time to do another ornament for the tree they put up at work. This year, for the first time, the ornament I stitched the first year I was here wasn't the only homely/ home-made ornament on the tree. I like the work-tree being a bit more informal, and hope that employees contributed the extra ornaments. I backed this with white felt, and blanket stitched the felt to the perforated paper. Started and finished Dec 2017:
and that's what I did in 2017 - quite an accomplished year for me.
So, upcoming in 2018.
1) I have a piece I do want to enter into an SCA Arts and Sciences contest at some point. I finally found it again, now I need to pull it out of the bag and work on it. Now that I have the work stumpwork piece done, I feel much more confident on my A&S piece, and hope to get it done this year, and entered.
2) I have a large felt-embroidery project for my SCA peeps to do this year. It's a thank-you for having my back when the tornado tore through the Gulf Wars encampment a couple years ago. I made a boo-boo, and my SCA family had my back.
3) I'd like to embroider some Medieval game boards for my family this year. The kids are getting too big to do the theme presents I used to do, and I just don't know them well enough to know what they want. But we all like family games, so... game boards and cookies. It's a thing.
4) Make progress on my WIP pile, which now includes the peacock, pictured below.
I think that's enough for 2018 *planning* - #2 is for sure a huge project, and #3 and #1 could easily become so. And this is my 'non-stress' hobby - I don't allow myself to stress over it at all, so I prefer to keep the planning and goals for such pretty minimal.
-boogie, making a grab for the thimbles
So, here are the 9(!) pieces I finished:
1) Naughty/ Nice ornament for a friend. The two kits below are sold separately, and the 'Nice' side has been finished for-*ever*. I finished the 'Naughty' side, sewed them together with a piece of white felt in between, strung up one hanger-thingy of beads, and sent it to my friend. I especially wanted to get this done this year, because my friend was sent off to the Middle East (not sure if it was Iraq or Afghanistan, i'm a bad friend...) as a final attempt by the US Army to murderize him right before his 20 years were up. *sighs* There are reasons I have a love/ hate relationship with Uncle Sam, and it usually has NOTHING to do with who's on the Hill....
2) Felt Helmet - this is an original design... which I don't think I remembered to get anyone to take a picture of. (No, I don't own a camera, so lean on friends at work). I worked this up in April as a joke for the aforementioned friend. He and I share an interest in the Society for the Creative Anachronism. It is, as the name implies, made entirely of felt blanket stitched in different layers with a small bit of decorative stitching for a bit more definition. I based it on a heraldic helmet, so it's turned sideways, with a Roman Crest of feathery things atop it. The helmet fully encloses the head, and with a rotating eye-protection piece with eye-slits. Sorta like the one on the far right:
3) Rocky Mtn Santa - I started this at the end of 2016 and didn't quite get it done until the end of Jan 2017. It went up on my tree this year. I liked it too much. :)
4) Dimensions Petit Gold Mermaid. Finish from my WIP pile. I don't remember when I started it, but i finished it in Feb, but left it unframed. I don't know what I want to do with it.
5) The first half of the piece of felt embroidery I did for work, I completed this in May. It is framed and sitting on my desk.
6) The second half of the felt embroidery I did for work was completed in November. This was way later than it 'should' have been, because every new step I had to get up the courage for. This is an example of stumpwork. It didn't turn out quite as I envisioned, but it's close enough, and I had a great deal of fun doing it. Includes slips (the bits of felt coming off the ground cloth), picot stitches (the white and silver triangles at the bottom of the flame), whipped backstich on the lettering, boullion and drizzle stitch on the red flames, feather stitches on the orange flame, and detached picot stitch (look at the floppy-flamelet coming through the orange flame, and the thing coming through the 'o' on the left), and finally, cutwork in it's simplest form - cutting a piece of the black cloth out and backing with the main yellow body in the middle.
I should note that all the colors in the flames are accurate... in an accurate representation - blue and white are the hottest flame colors, and if you see no color at all between the flame and the material burning that's hotter still. And the warning implied is also very true - your flame on oxygen is more intense, burns material more completely, and burns things not usually burnable in a 21% Oxy atmosphere. So be careful, guys. And also, end the public service announcement...
and finally, the finished piece:
7) Blue Angel from Dimensions. From the WIP pile - I have half a thought this was started while I was in college. I stitched, way back when, a Rose Angel for my mother, who at the time had Blue-themed guest bedroom with rose accents, and an office/ den with the opposite scheme. I think I was going for a paired set. I put it down, and didn't recall why until I picked it back up again - that pearlescent stuff is a total PITA to work with. And I didn't have enough of it, so I ended up finishing it out with metallic silver from DMC. I'm ok with the end effect of this, but remind me never to work with the pearlescent stuff again! I gave this to my mother, but I haven't received a picture on how it turned out. Finished mid-July.
8) Mill Hill Fire House kit. Tried to do this for mother's dad some years ago, but I think it got put down in the move from apt to house. Finished end of July. I haven't framed this, because I'm not so sure Grandpa's going to be around much longer. I may just quietly keep it to remind me of the good times.
9) Mill Hill tree ornament. Finally decided it was time to do another ornament for the tree they put up at work. This year, for the first time, the ornament I stitched the first year I was here wasn't the only homely/ home-made ornament on the tree. I like the work-tree being a bit more informal, and hope that employees contributed the extra ornaments. I backed this with white felt, and blanket stitched the felt to the perforated paper. Started and finished Dec 2017:
and that's what I did in 2017 - quite an accomplished year for me.
So, upcoming in 2018.
1) I have a piece I do want to enter into an SCA Arts and Sciences contest at some point. I finally found it again, now I need to pull it out of the bag and work on it. Now that I have the work stumpwork piece done, I feel much more confident on my A&S piece, and hope to get it done this year, and entered.
2) I have a large felt-embroidery project for my SCA peeps to do this year. It's a thank-you for having my back when the tornado tore through the Gulf Wars encampment a couple years ago. I made a boo-boo, and my SCA family had my back.
3) I'd like to embroider some Medieval game boards for my family this year. The kids are getting too big to do the theme presents I used to do, and I just don't know them well enough to know what they want. But we all like family games, so... game boards and cookies. It's a thing.
4) Make progress on my WIP pile, which now includes the peacock, pictured below.
I think that's enough for 2018 *planning* - #2 is for sure a huge project, and #3 and #1 could easily become so. And this is my 'non-stress' hobby - I don't allow myself to stress over it at all, so I prefer to keep the planning and goals for such pretty minimal.
-boogie, making a grab for the thimbles
no subject
Date: 2018-01-16 01:48 am (UTC)Gorgeous and so creative!
no subject
Date: 2018-01-16 02:02 am (UTC)The flame on O2 piece there is a lot more intimidating, because I had to *come up with* my own design - eek! especially since my design genes tend to be mathematical problems instead of drawing, lol.
Thanks again!
-boogie